Bursa Malaysia Higher At Midday, Buoyed By Buying Activities

KUALA LUMPUR, July 18 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia stayed higher at midday, driven by consistent buying activities in selected heavyweights, led by the construction, industrial products and services, and financial services counters.

Gamuda perked up 15 sen to RM5.30, Sunway put on 13 sen to RM5.12 and Public Bank added 4.0 sen to RM4.29.

Altogether, these counters pushed the composite index up by a combined 4.23 points. 

At 12.30 pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose by 5.63 points, or 0.37 per cent, to 1,526.57 from Thursday’s close of 1,520.94.

The benchmark index opened 2.03 points higher at 1,522.97, and subsequently moved between 1,522.97 and 1,529.52 throughout the session.

The broader market was positive with gainers beating decliners 513 to 365, while 466 counters were unchanged, 1,114 untraded and eight suspended.

Turnover stood at 2.04 billion units worth RM1.32 billion.

Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd believes that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd’s stronger-than-expected quarterly results should have a spillover effect on local technology players, particularly in the electrical and electronics and electronics manufacturing services, compounded with the recent development on the resumption of chip sales to China.

“We also expect the ongoing developments in the data centre theme, coupled with Tenaga Nasional's capital expenditure (capex) rollout for grid-upgrading works, should boost the interest in Gamuda Bhd, MN Holdings Bhd, UUE Holdings Bhd and Southern Cable Group Bhd.

“Real estate investment trusts (REITs) are also favourable with their decent yield and defensive nature of their business,” it said.

Among other heavyweights, CIMB increased 7.0 sen to RM6.57, Press Metal Aluminium strengthened 4.0 sen to RM5.11, MISC gained 6.0 sen to RM7.61, Petronas Dagangan gave up 36 sen to RM21.34, and CelcomDigi fell 3.0 sen to RM3.84.  

As for the most active stocks, ACE Market-debutant Enproserve Group was 4.0 sen higher at 28 sen, NexG, Zetrix AI and Tanco inched up half-a-sen to 49.5 sen, 94 sen and 90.5 sen, respectively, and iCents appreciated 4.0 sen to 38 sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index garnered 57.01 points to 11,482.18, the FBMT 100 Index edged up 57.07 points to 11,245.44, the FBM Emas Shariah Index expanded 58.63 points to 11,532.60, the FBM 70 Index jumped 152.66 points to 16,696.70, and the FBM ACE Index went up 14.44 points to 4,650.42.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index surged 79.11 points to 17,381.46, the Industrial Products and Services Index was 1.27 points firmer at 155.26, the Energy Index inched up 0.40 of a point to 739.51, and the Plantation Index strengthened 27.66 points to 7,458.20.

-- BERNAMA